Washington is in the midst of an eviction crisis that is devastating communities of color. The team finds that one in six black adults in Pierce County (17%) were evicted over five years, while one in 11 black adults were evicted in King County. Given this issue, the team believes that evictions are not only a mechanism leading to homelessness, but a civil rights issue as well.

Key takeaways from the report include the following statistics:

One in 55 Washington adults were evicted in five years

Only 8% of defendants had legal representation

Washington lost 91,000 affordable fair market rental units since 2000, 85% of which were lost since 2012

A King County household has to make $90,000 after taxes to avoid rent burden (giving more than 30% of your income to rent)

This work is currently motivating several policies in committee at the state capital of Olympia, Washington. Feel free to reach out with any questions to Timothy Thomas by email at t77 (@) uw.edu.